How low is too low with cals?

[doctasarge]

I am doing a diet right now that is focused on protein shakes, flax seed, salmon oil, and post work out shake. It is easy to do because I am in college and eating in the dinning hall would kill any diet. However, the calories are very low. For me a 195 lbs 6'3", 13 percent body fat 1450 to 1750 calories per day. I am also taking an ECY stack twice per day.Chris Shugart, who designed the program said he lost 16 lbs in 4 weeks without any significant loss in lifts. I am on day three, and my lifts seem to be going down. What do you guys think of the "Velocity Diet".
Velocity Diet

 

[ChefWide]

A few questions/observations.



What are your goals? Without an idea of what short/medium/longterm fitness and bodyImage goals you have, no one can really give you advice that makes sense for YOU.

that having been said, it looks like your plan is to attempt to drop body fat... why are you in such a hurry? at your height and weight, weightLOSS might not be the ticket, but rather body recomposition..


What are your training habits? if you had to peg a name on your training, would you say 'casual BBer', 'Strength athlete in training' or 'Serious Competitor on the move'... just an idea, but give yourself some goals and define a time period for them and your way ahead of most folks that just do the lifestyle day in and day out.

From your pretty hard core diet, i would say you, like me, suffer from a pretty serious ALL OR NOTHING disorder, is that fair?

Toss up some more specifics and there lots of folks around here that can really get you the info you need, or confirm that you have the info you need already.

Cheers.

Chef

 

[pintoca]

Dude, I have only 4 words to say: "You are starving yourself"

Even though you are in college and you cannot eat in the Dining hall, a diet based on shakes and oil is not good by any standards.

My recommendation to you:

1. Get your numbers right: Calculate your BMR and TDEE and move from that point on.
2. Cook in advance for the week: there is no point in repeating how many benefits there are with real food instead of supplements. Supps are supposed to be Supps, not the main course...

With any huge reduction in cals, anybody will loose a lot of weight... you don't want to loose weight, you want to loose fat without slowing down your metabolism in doing so.

Pintoca

 

[doctasarge]

Yeah you are both right. This diet basically goes against everything I have believed in for dieting. It just seemed that people were getting such good results, but too good to be true really. But I am a pretty serious weighlifter/bodybuilder (to be). I have been working out hard for about 4 years and just finished a great bulking phase where I picked up some extra fat, and when I saw this diet, I thought that I could cut down to a pretty good level before spring break (less than a month away), but it would not be worth losing all the muscle I just worked so hard to gain. But ChedWide was right; it is difficult for me to not to do the all or nothing. Would you guys just slowly cut as normal and not worry about looking the best for quickly? It seems like thats the only way. But the food issue here at college is very difficult. I live in the dorms and the cook here loves butter and canola oil EEEEWWW. Any suggestions would be very appreciated. Thank you all.

 

[LeanOnMe]

Do you have access to the following
oats
brown rice
chicken breast
tuna
olive oil
natty peanut butter

if so you can build an excellent core diet with just these items
get Tom Venuto's read "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle"
best book i've read on nutrition, period.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

You shouldn't go below 10xBW no matter what your goals are.

Well, unless, of course, your goal is to be an unhealthy anorexic.

 

[pintoca]

Yeah you are both right. This diet basically goes against everything I have believed in for dieting. It just seemed that people were getting such good results, but too good to be true really. But I am a pretty serious weighlifter/bodybuilder (to be). I have been working out hard for about 4 years and just finished a great bulking phase where I picked up some extra fat, and when I saw this diet, I thought that I could cut down to a pretty good level before spring break (less than a month away), but it would not be worth losing all the muscle I just worked so hard to gain. But ChedWide was right; it is difficult for me to not to do the all or nothing. Would you guys just slowly cut as normal and not worry about looking the best for quickly? It seems like thats the only way. But the food issue here at college is very difficult. I live in the dorms and the cook here loves butter and canola oil EEEEWWW. Any suggestions would be very appreciated. Thank you all.

Well, I don't know if this will work out for you the same it works for me... But I dropped 53 lbs in 5.5 months... about 50 lbs of fat and 3 lbs of LBM.

I created a calculator (again, results can vary) that will tell you the numbers, you need to feel in the gaps with your food. Make sound decisions on your food intake. Change only your weight and body fat in the calculator, it will tell you rest. If you loose too much LBM in the first 2 weeks, up the cals by 200-300 /day until you stop loosing LBM.

The calculator is here: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=374938

lift 4 days a week... heavy like an animal, 8 to 12 reps per set. 3-4 sets per muscle group.
cardio 6 times a week (yep, you read that right). 45min @ 75% MHR, either first thing in the morning, or directly after your lifting.

It is not easy, but the results have been fantastic so far and I'm not stopping until I am single digit BF

Any particular questions, post them here, not via PM since other people may have the same questions.

Pintoca

PS. and to answer the title of this thread, anything at or below BMR is too low for cals.

 

[bigtred]

forget it

 

[Makavelli]

At 6' 3" and only 195 lbs. you're obviously an ectomorph. You to add about 1000 calories to this diet. You should start out at around 2500 calories and adjust from there.

 

[Nicorette]

I am doing a diet right now that is focused on protein shakes, flax seed, salmon oil, and post work out shake. It is easy to do because I am in college and eating in the dinning hall would kill any diet. However, the calories are very low. For me a 195 lbs 6'3", 13 percent body fat 1450 to 1750 calories per day. I am also taking an ECY stack twice per day.Chris Shugart, who designed the program said he lost 16 lbs in 4 weeks without any significant loss in lifts. I am on day three, and my lifts seem to be going down. What do you guys think of the "Velocity Diet".
Velocity Diet

I consume that many calories per day and I’m a 125lbs girl! ...it's hardly enough to keep me from feeling starved! Eat up!